LAMBS FROM BIRTH UNTIL WEANED I09 



lambs first begin to eat. Such fodders should be fine and 

 leafy. No fodders furnish food more suitable than clover 

 hay of fine growth, cut early and well cured. The second 

 growth for the season of the common red clover has 

 special adaptation for such feeding, and the same is true 

 of alsike clover. Vetches and peas grown together and 

 cut while yet under-ripe are also much relished by young 

 lambs. They should be grown so thickly as to produce 

 a fine growth and should have enough of oats in them to 

 prevent lodging. It will pay well to make provision for 

 the growing of suitable fodders for young lambs where 

 these come to hand early and in any considerable num- 

 bers. 



Succulence should be provided for them in the form 

 of cabbage, field roots or ensilage. Of these, cabbage 

 will be found the most relished by the young lambs, but 

 they soon become very fond of field roots. The cab- 

 bage heads thus fed must be sliced. The field roots are 

 best prepared by running them through a cutting box 

 which cuts them into slices and then cuts the slices into 

 narrow strips by the operation. They are also fond of 

 corn silage, but cabbage and field roots are better adapted 

 to the production of suitable bone and muscle. The aim 

 should be to make field roots the chief reliance for such 

 feeding, as, though not more suitable than cabbage, they 

 are more easily stored. 



The nature of the concentrates and the amounts to 

 feed young lambs is influenced by the use that is to be 

 made of them. When the lambs are to be sold while yet 

 on the dams the aim should be so to feed them that they 

 shall be plump and fat, but when reared for breeding 

 more of growth with less of fatness is the important con- 

 sideration. For the former the following mixture will be 

 found suitable, viz. : Ground corn, bran and oil meal in 

 the proportions of two, one, and one parts by weight. If 

 the corn is simply cracked the lambs will relish it as well 

 or even better than when ground. When corn is ground 



